The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-09-04
TIRE CRIME OF UNITY.

ence, to defend the propriety and wis.
dom of unity.
Consistency of the individual and
unity upon matters of common interest
in the community, are the mainsprings
of success. The individual cannot hope
to succeed by tearing that down to-day
which he constructed yesterday; that
community would soon relapse into
barbarism which ceased to be united.
From savagery to civilization is mainly
a step from a pandemonium, wherein
each person is law unto himself, to
organized society wherein the natural
rights of the individual are subverted to
the general welfare. 1t was to secure
our happiness that 1.-The more perfect
union" of the present government was
substituted for the Old Confederation !;
and it was to preserve the unity of the
United States that over q million lives
were expended in the Civ.l
War. The father, in the classic s
legend, who demonstrated to shis
sons the imposslbility of break
ing the bundle of sticks, and again the
ease with which the sticks might be
broken singly, symbolized an axiom of
human experience. which the ages have
chrystallized into a multitude of max
inns.
History has demonstrated the almost
inVincible strength of those common
weaIths, large or small, in which the
traitor was unknown and unity of pur-
pose was unbroken by feuds and dis
sensIons. 1t stands to reason, indeed
that the two elements of communal
strength should be perfect unity upon
questions of common concern and
numbers. "a house divided against
itself cannot stand"
The Mormons realized the great ad-
vantages of unity in accomplishing Ger
tain objects. They have, therefore,
strictly in accordance with scriptural in
junction and the experience of man
kinds, insisted much among themselves
upon the necessity Of close union.
Is there any hing either unphilo-
sophical, opposed to the canons of
nature, or unpatriotic and opposed to
the genius of American liberty in such
desires or teachings?
If we apprehend correctly the object
of the Constitution, it is to secure to
down-trodden humanity privilege of
doing just exactly as they choose in
such things, the only limitation being
that the rights of others must not
thereby be infringed upon.
And again, realizing that all of these
mutual desires might better be &C
complished, and that some indeed
could only be accomplished, by gather
ing into one locality, they have seen fl
to vary from the ordinary rule of an
etfete Christianity, and have collected,
or have endeavored to collect, into
single neighborhood.
Is this crime? You would not think
so. But, alas! for the narrow bigotry
and undeveloped republicanism of some
of our past and present nelghbors,
it seems that to gather is to
commit a grave offense against good re-
ligion and good government. General
Clark, the ty-ant whom the Infamous
Boggs, Governor of Missouri, sent with
q mobocratic army to exterminate or
drive the Mormons from the State,
invoked the Spirit of the Unknown
God to rest upon anddeliver them from
the awful chain of superstition and
exclaimed, under the influence of the
bigoted and despotic spirit referred to;
Il would advise you to scatter abroad
and never again organize yourselves
with Bishops, Priests, etc., lest you ex-
cite the jealousies Of the people and sub
iect yourselves to the same calamities
that have now come upon you" The
Mormon people, driven from Missouri
sought refuge in Illinois, and, having
purchased extensive tracts of land in
Hancock County. made that county
their refuge with their head
quarters at Nauvoo. All went merry
for a couple of years, and then strife
was renewed and ultimately the people
were driven into the west. Governor
Ford, who was the chief magistrate of
Illinois at the time of this expulsion,
wrote history of the State, in which
he devotes considerable attention to
Mormon affairs.
Strangely enough, it must seem to
the true American, he also concluded
that the chief Mormon offenses were
gathering and unity. Scattered
the country" he says" they
might have lived in peace like other re-
Iigious sects, but they insisted upon
their right to congregate to one great
city. The people were determined that
they should not exercise the right; and
it will be seen in the sequel of this his
tory, that in their case, as in every
other where large bodies of the people
are associated to accomplish with force